Blog #5

1. What were the implications of the system of slavery for southern white and black women?

The life of a slave woman and an elite white woman in the South were as different as possible. A white woman in the south would rarely be seen doing any sort of work at all. Whereas a slave woman would be almost guaranteed to work in cotton, tobacco, or sugar fields. Some slave women did housework and even raised their master’s children. The elite white women had a great sense of pride in the amount of time they had for leisurely activities. The non-elite white women also rarely saw any field labor, though not having as much free time as their counterparts, they mostly worked inside the house and occasionally performed duties of midwives and nurses.

2. What is the significance of the story of Harriet Jacobs for our understanding of slave women’s

experiences? (pp. 166-167 “Trials of Girlhood”)

Harriet Jacobs’ story shows what kind of horrible experiences slave women underwent at the hands of their masters. She states that turning 15 years old is “a sad epoch in the life of a slave girl.”(166). She goes on to tell how the slave masters would sexually abuse their slaves and that for a slave girl to be born with the gift of beauty in reality became a curse. Also, Jacobs mentions that the mistresses who should have been protecting the victims of these sexual exploits, only exhibited jealousy and rage.

1. How did characters in these two accounts reject and resist the assumptions about black people fundamental to the slave system? On what personal resources did they draw to make their challenges?

Slaves were considered to be of low intelligence and have no real feelings. The story of William and Ellen Craft showed that slaves could potentially have a great amount of intelligence. With their combined thought and effort they were able to trick the system and escape to freedom. Polly Shine on the other hand was interviewed long after slavery was over, she mostly talked about slaves being sold and how hard their workdays were. To grant her and her husband’s freedom Ellen Craft had to pretend to be a white male slave owner. She was white due to her father and grandfather being slave owners, and her husband William was a black slave. Ellen had to sacrifice her femininity and womanhood while William had to learn to call his wife his master. Shine talks about a slave who had a relationship with a girl on another farm, he would constantly go over to see her at the cost of sleep and later on the relationship in general, as he was sold by his master to another man.

2. Both of these stories were written after the fact: the Crafts’ ten years following the emancipation and Polly Shine’s after about seven decades. Evaluate the role memory plays in these accounts, and consider the ways in which it distorts or possibly authenticates the narrator’s experiences.

Since the Crafts’ story was only written ten years after the emancipation, the memories of their escape were still likely to be vivid and provide great detail. Perhaps, the way William talks about his emotions or his wife’s actions was enhanced by the knowledge he received in order to write their story. Shine’s story was written some 70 odd years after the emancipation and that large of a gap in time could be a great key for exaggerating or romanticizing her story. It can be very likely that her story about the relationship between the two slaves was largely if not completely fabricated.